Our new Indie Games subforum is now open for business in G&T. Go and check it out, you might land a code for a free game. If you're developing an indie game and want to post about it, follow these directions. If you don't, he'll break your legs! Hahaha! Seriously though.

Our rules have been updated and given their own forum. Go and look at them! They are nice, and there may be new ones that you didn't know about! Hooray for rules! Hooray for The System! Hooray for Conforming!

There are a lot of different rules sets and combinations of rules sets we could have chosen from, but we went with the most objective rules possible. So here's how it's going down:

Friday:

Form your own bands. If you need help finding members, you can make use of our LFG (Looking For Group) area to find other drifters.

Once you've formed a band, you can attempt to Qualify. At any time before 2 AM on Saturday (sort of the same day as Friday...), make your way to a Rock Band station. Qualifying means passing any song on any difficulty. Once you have a score you're happy with, nab a nearby Console Freeplay Enforcer to have your score registered (don't leave the score screen!). YOU MAY ONLY DO THIS ONCE. Only the top 32 qualifying scores will make it into the tournament.

Saturday:

Bands will be seeded and bracketed based on their qualifying score. Initial matches will be announced Saturday morning at 10 AM at the Console Freeplay checkout desk (Room 202). The first rounds will begin at 11 AM, and will be staggered throughout the day, since we have limited Rock Band sets.

A match will consist of the following:

The lower seeded team will have first choice of song. Both teams will play the song, at whatever difficulty they each prefer. Highest score wins.

The higher seeded team then gets to pick a song, same deal.

Ties will be broken by playing a song randomly chosen from a subset of songs by Console Freeplay staff.

Winners will proceed to the next round. Failure to show up to a scheduled match will result in a loss.

All scheduling will be announced Saturday morning. Matches will be held on Saturday until four bands are left.

Sunday:

The final four bands will battle it out, same style. After the final match, a victor will be declared. Glories will be handed down, laurels offered as crowns.

There will be prizes (worthwhile! but secret to you...) for the first and second place bands. Additionally, there will be a prize for the "Best of Show" band - stage presence, outfits, etc. The award will be judged by CFP staff throughout the tournament.

"Green Grass & High Tides" may not be played except in the final round, for reasons of length, time limit, and sheer, ridiculous point value. Currently, all other songs are fair game (subject to change).

If not... and it's score based... won't everyone try to qualify with GG&HT?

Also, will there be DLC available to play or no? Might be good to know.

No limit. Remember, this tournament is based purely on "Skill = Points". If you want to qualify with GG&HT, you are more than welcome to. DLC is currently up in the air, it depends on how many machines we end up with that have the DLC. Guess you'll find out on Friday

If not... and it's score based... won't everyone try to qualify with GG&HT?

Also, will there be DLC available to play or no? Might be good to know.

No limit. Remember, this tournament is based purely on "Skill = Points". If you want to qualify with GG&HT, you are more than welcome to. DLC is currently up in the air, it depends on how many machines we end up with that have the DLC. Guess you'll find out on Friday

You probably should come up with a few fair options for qualifying songs.

If over 32 bands are going to be qualifying on GG&HT, you won't have time to run the actual tournament.

What are we looking at for setups and instruments? Who is supplying them? Is HMX in on this or is this purely fan-run?

Should I bring my own guitar? Could I even bring my own guitar?

If I grabbed my HD that has 100% of the DLC, would that be handy for you guys?

We're looking at hopefully 5 setups, including one on the 2nd floor stage where Jam Sessions was last year, with hardware provided from various sources. You can bring your own guitar if you like, but leave the HDD at home - DLC is tied to the serial number of the 360 you downloaded it on, so unless you brought your whole rig (which we also would prefer you not do, unless you want to set up at one of the BYOC(onsole) stations), it unfortunately wouldn't help. Thanks though!

You probably should come up with a few fair options for qualifying songs.

If over 32 bands are going to be qualifying on GG&HT, you won't have time to run the actual tournament.

We will take the top 32 scoring bands. If it happens that more than 32 of you max out the score on Green Grass, or for some other reason we can't objectively choose 32, ties will be broken by some highly amusing mechanism.

Will the rock band qualifying will be in Raven? Is there a start time?

You may qualify wherever there's a Rock Band station and a CFP Enforcer (you can tell they're CFP because they'll be...in CFP. With clipboards.) Please don't try to qualify before 3pm on Friday - give us a chance to get settled, then the fun'll begin

Sorry - I've consulted with others in the Tribunal, and we've decided that because of how long/epic GGAHT is, we're saving it until the final round. Read: YOU MAY NOT PLAY GGAHT UNTIL YOU MAKE IT TO THE FINAL ROUND.

We don't know the DLC fantastically well, and since we may end up with DLC, I'm open to suggestions for other songs that fall into the "Too Much Epic" category.

Yes they are. But they are DLC, so you may or may not get them. GGAHT is hella long. None of the other ones I have downloaded seem to be crazy long.

Question though. For qualifying songs there are definitely different scores possible on different songs. You say we can qualify on any song, but a song that is 30 seconds longer with a drum solo is going to rank higher than Learn to Fly or something, just due to the number of points available.

Do you suggest we go out and research the highest possible scoring song on expert and everyone play that? Or do we pick from a smaller pool for the qualifying rounds?

I second the idea of having a setlist of valid qualifiers based around having reasonably similar max scores (look at the ranking boards, or maybe there is a list for this already on the web). It would save you organizers a lot of headaches and bitching about this once things are underway.

I second the idea of having a setlist of valid qualifiers based around having reasonably similar max scores (look at the ranking boards, or maybe there is a list for this already on the web). It would save you organizers a lot of headaches and bitching about this once things are underway.

I third this idea. It makes the playing field more even, since in the current plan, those who have time to research max scores will have a huge advantage over those who dont. Considering the very short time frame we all have to prepare for this, I think it would be best to eliminate any such artificial advantages if possible. A short, pre-determined song list will shift the advantage from those who happen to know more about max scores, to those who are really good at certain songs. Personally, I'd much prefer the latter.

Yeah, if there is just open selection then I will pick a song that will unfairly put my group ahead of others just because they picked the wrong song. It will be a clusterfuck and argument, rightfully so. I say avoid the drama, look at the groups of songs and pick several songs all around a certain mark, like 1.5 million etc., among the middle tiers or something. Then let people qualify on any of those of their choice.

Yeah, if there is just open selection then I will pick a song that will unfairly put my group ahead of others just because they picked the wrong song. It will be a clusterfuck and argument, rightfully so. I say avoid the drama, look at the groups of songs and pick several songs all around a certain mark, like 1.5 million etc., among the middle tiers or something. Then let people qualify on any of those of their choice.

Agreed. Drama usually stems from people exploiting loose rulesets. Or hackers, which are probably less of a problem in this setting...

There was discussion about how GG&HT would be unfair because it offers a much higher potential score. My argument was that anyone who was committed or knew enough about the game to make the top teams would already recognize this, so it would provide the same "unfair advantage" to all of the qualifying teams anyway.

Upon further review, the "will" in that post would have been better replaced with "would", but FYI I had already read the post you tried to "nail me" on, and agreed with it. Since it was my playing Devil's Advocate that helped address that 'sploit, I thought I would continue the conversation to address the fact that if the qualifying songs are released ahead of time, people like myself who are veterans at full band overdrive pathing and score maximization would still have an unfair advantage. You know, bringing attention to the loose rulesets that you bitched about people exploiting a few posts up on this page?

Can enforcers enter? All my rock band people are enforcers. If they can't, anyone looking for a singer? I can do anything on easy/medium, most hard, and some expert. I'm mainly looking to have fun- my stage performance is prolly my best asset (though my voice ain't bad- it just doesn't get me 100%s). I'll do my best though, if someone would like to enter the competish with me! Warning though- if I know the song lyrics, I WILL sing the original (such as "fucking" instead of "mocking" in Coheed and Cambria's "Welcome Home.") I refuse to clean up a song- that's bull shit. Unless that gets me disqualified. Then I can cope.

A lust for conquest and absolute power, and the desire to have a really bigâ€¦ gun.
-Shelley, Xenosaga Episode I